Facebook post lists inter-faith couples, calls for attacks

A Facebook post calling for violence against over 100 Indian inter-faith couples was taken down after it sparked outrage on social media. The social network suspended the page Hindutva Varta, on which the post appeared.

| TNN | Updated: Feb 6, 2018, 08:10 IST

Highlights

A Facebook post calling for violence against over 100 Indian inter-faith couples was taken down after it sparked outrage on social media.

The page asked “Hindu lions” to “hunt” down the men in the list.

The list of 102 couples had names of both men and women, followed by links to individuals’ FB profiles.

The list was posted on Jan 28 on the Hindutva Varta Facebook page.

The social network suspended the page Hindutva Varta, on which the post appeared. (Representative image)

The page asked “Hindu lions” to “hunt” down the men in the list. The list of 102 couples had names of both men and women, followed by links to individuals’ Facebook profiles. The list was posted on January 28 on the Hindutva Varta Facebook page.

TimesView

We have had numerous incidents of young boys and girls being picked up by the police merely because they posted something critical about a leader or the government. And yet, the authorities seem strangely unable to act against those who resort to posts that are actually far more dangerous, posts that explicitly incite violence. That is unacceptable. The principle must be tolerance for blowing off steam and a harsh crackdown on hate speech,not the other way round.

After a week, the page was pulled down on Sunday night. According to fake news-watch website altnews.in, this list had been shared earlier on a Facebook page called “Justice for Hindus” last November, albeit without a call to violence.

On Monday, a Twitter user with the screen name Satish Mylavarapu claimed responsibility for running the offending page.

‘Will create FB page on inter-faith marriages again’

I am proud to be admin of that page Hindutva Varta…Will create new page again,” a Twitter user with the screen name Satish Mylavarapu wrotefrom hisunverified handle @smylavarapu responding to an Alt News tweet on the page.

Pratik Sinha, founder of altnews.in, says the Hindutva Varta post runs a high risk of inciting violence. “When such lists are out in public, they may be misused during volatile times. Law enforcement should step up and take action against the administrator of the page. There is a need for strong legal accountability, and such people need to be put behind bars,” Sinha told TOI over phone.

Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif today said those who killed Delhi boy Ankit Saxena, allegedly because he was in relationship with a Muslim girl “need to change their mindset”.

Responding to a TOI email, a Facebook spokesperson said, “Maintaining a safe community for people to connect and share on Facebook is absolutely critical to us. We have policies that prohibit hate speech and credible threats of harm, and we remove such content when we’re made aware of it.”

Last May, Facebook added 3,000 people to its 4,500-strong team that manually reviews content reported for self-harm, violence and hate speech. The spokesperson linked TOI to Facebook’s community guidelines that say, “We remove credible threats of physical harm to individuals. We also remove specific threats of theft, vandalism or other financial harm. We may consider things like a person's public visibility or the likelihood of real world violence in determining whether a threat is credible.”

The Hindutva Varta post calling for violence did not specify how and where it procured the list of couples. However, inter-faith couples looking to marry under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 are required to publish a notice about their civil union as part of the procedure. Section 6(3) of the Act prescribes that after receiving the notice from the individuals willing to marry, the “Marriage Officer shall thereupon cause a copy thereof to be affixed to some conspicuous place in his office".

Last December, the Uttar Pradesh state BJP unit removed its Ghaziabad city president Ajay Sharma after he led a protest against an interfaith marriage in the UP town. Scores of protesters had descended at the wedding venue to intimidate the couple’s parents and guests.

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